January 17, 1960

The Negro's Dilemma

By JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN

he one fact of which the leading nation of the Free World can be least proud is the
unconscionable treatment of its Negro citizens. The defense is sometimes offered that such
treatment is not national policy and that the Constitution throws its protection around all
citizens regardless of race. But such defense neither comforts the Negro victim nor budges
the nation's critics. The grim facts of shabby treatment, of the denial of basic human rights,
are infinitely more impressive than mere theoretical arguments about what the Constitution
can and cannot do.

When the Negro seeks employment commensurate with his abilities, listen to the sickening
excuses that actually tell him that proficiency is unimportant when it is not clothed in white
skin. Notice how in some places he is mobbed and even shot if he attempts to fulfill the
sacred citizenship responsibility of voting. See how he is shunted into ghettoes where he is
all but helpless against the real estate groups and lending agencies that are determined to
keep him there and exploit him. Observe in a thousand "respectable, God-fearing" American
communities how the Negro traveler is insulted and driven out if he seeks sleeping, eating, or
even toilet facilities, as though he had physical powers not possessed by others. Go to the
remotest regions of the land, North or South, and talk with a Negro. Hew will have an
incredible story to tell of cruel, heartless insults he must endure as a part of his "normal"
existence in the land of his birth.

And it is not merely the big insults in employment, housing, and voting that the Negro must
endure. It is also the subtle, yet ruthless forms of discrimination that have been developed
into a fine art that he is constantly forced to face. It is the seating of a Negro party near the
service door of an exotic New York restaurant, whose proprietor migrated to this country
since World War I. It is the "no vacancy" sign that is flashed in a Michigan motel when a
Negro family drives up. It is the "special arrangements" made for the attendance of Negroes
at an Independence Day celebration in Texas or Georgia or for the Negro scholar who wants
to do research in a public building in North Carolina. It is the thousand and one ways,
employed in season and out, taxing the ingenuity of the most resourceful bigots, that are
designed to heap indignities and insults on the Negroes of the country. These experiences
and the question of how to react to them constitute the great dilemma of the Negro as he
seeks to understand his position and his prospects in American life.

The problem is made no easier as the Negro realizes that he is no pariah. His acceptability
was attested not only by centuries of devoted, back-breaking service of the most personal
kind, but also--and quite literally--by the enormous mulatto progeny spawned in the wombs
of black women. His claim to a secure place in the American social order was strengthened
by the sacrifices of many thousands of his black brothers who gave their loyal services and
even their lives in all the nation's wars. His right to equal treatment in every respect was
written into the supreme law of the land. Yet he has seen his claims denied and his
constitutional rights flouted by those who profess to live under a government of laws. How
can he retain his sanity and how can he react intelligently and constructively in the face of
such artful frustrations?

If the Negro despairs, we are told, he has no reason to do so. Have not Negroes made
remarkable progress since emancipation? Look at Ralph Bunche, Marian Anderson, and
Jackie Robinson. Their achievements are outstanding by any standards. But neither of these
observations could hardly be convincing of anything. The Negro did not emerge from
barbarism in 1865. He had lived in the American environment for centuries before
emancipation and had contributed to and assimilated much of the civilization of which he
was an integral part. He emerged from illiteracy and slavery in 1865 because the laws that
protected those conditions collapsed at the end of the war. The Negro was then able to
participate more fully in a civilization that itself did not become worthy being called a
civilization until the barbarism of slavery was eradicated. As for the Bunches, Andersons,
and Robinsons, they were the exception that proved the rule. The rule was to be found in the
countless young Negroes in Little Rock and Harlem, Charleston and Chicago, who never had
a chance simply because they were Negroes.

As the Negroes seeks to maintain some balance in the face of the difficulties he experiences
in his native land, he is not consoled by those who remind him that his condition, however
unsatisfactory, is better than it would be anywhere else in the world. Even if that assertion
were true, it is quite irrelevant, since the Negro does not judge his condition by the plight of
the slaves of Russia or the impoverished millions of India or the hapless victims of South
African barbarism. Rather, he judges his condition by the condition of his fellow citizens
and by the promises and guarantees his own country makes to him. Nor is he impressed by
the haughty presumption of those who invite him to "go back to Africa," if he is not satisfied
with things as they are in the United States. It is like inviting your next door neighbor to
move when he complains that your overgrown son persists in bullying his children. Forty
years ago James Weldon Johnson gave the classic answer to such arrogance when he said,

This land is ours by right of birth,
This land is ours by right of toil. . . .

Even if he were inclined to do so, the American Negro could never accommodate himself to
the negativism involved in accepting his condition here or accepting the ungracious invitation
to leave. He is too much of an American to do that. He is keenly aware that his investment
of three centuries of service and labor in the building of this country has placed him at the
very center of the great American Experiment. If his services have not been more efficiently
utilized, the fault lies not with him but with the racist considerations that have often
consigned him to tasks below his capacities. He is determined to realize the fullest returns on
his investment and to secure his full rights as a human being and as a citizen. If he did not
make such an approach to his problems he would fail to grasp the magnificent implications
of the American dream with its promises of justice and equality.

Not only does his Americanism compel the Negro to strive to improve his own status by
demanding the rights that are his. It also gives him, as it gives to others committed to the
ideals set forth in the American dream, a burning desire to make the system work. He is the
acid test of the system, and he knows it. This knowledge gives him a sense of his own
strategic importance in any program to push the dream closer to realization. Whether it is in
a drive for fair employment, desegregated education, universal suffrage, or decent,
democratic housing, the Negro fully appreciates the implications for American democracy
that are involved in such efforts. He is a proud American who wants to make Americanism
work.

The Negro is proud, moreover, of the role of leadership his country plays in world affairs.
He knows that this leadership is greatly affected, even hampered, by the denials of his own
rights. Cautious Americans are quick to warn that "calamities" such as strikes and inflation
do as much to destroy this country as the active efforts of its enemies. In the context of the
struggle for world leadership the shortcomings of the economic system, however serious, are
hardly comparable to the shortcomings of our democratic practices. The insult to a black
cabinet minister from Ghana who was evicted from a Delaware restaurant did incalculable
damage to American prestige and leadership abroad. And a White House breakfast the
following morning did not repair the damage. Darker peoples around the globe know that
that restaurant and thousands like it in the United States stand as symbols of insults to
seventeen million Negro citizens and to a billion or so darker peoples elsewhere. The only
way such damage can be repaired is in the eradication of racist symbols and practices. To
this task the American Negro is irrevocably dedicated.

The American Negro would be unworthy and irresponsible were he to freeze into inactivity
before the dilemma he faces. He could not possibly accept the imperfections of democracy
of which he is the principal victim. His Americanism leaves him no choice but to fight
relentlessly to destroy un-American practices wherever he finds them. Naturally, he will be a
prime beneficiary of the improvements he advocates. But the perfection of American
democracy will also create a worthy legacy for his children and the children of his fellow
citizens. For an impecunious people who have few worldly goods to devise, this would
constitute a rich estate.

Dr. Franklin, chairman, Department of History, Brooklyn College, wrote "From Slavery to
Freedom, A History of American Negroes."